Death toll from Italy earthquake rises

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – A car is crushed by falling rubble from a building in Carvezzo, Italy following the 5.8-magnitude earthquake on May 29, 2012.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – A building's roof collapsed after the earthquake in Cavezzo, Italy, where eyewitnesses say about 70% of the town was destroyed.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – Elderly people walk in a temprorary emergency camp after the earthquake in Mirandola; the government declared a state of emergency in the quake area.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – Local people wake up after sleeping in a park early on May 30, 2012 in Crevalcore. Dozens of aftershocks hit northeastern Italy overnight as thousands of jittery survivors spent the night in tents.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – This tower collapsed in the quake on May 29, 2012. The earthquake rocked northeastern Italy just days after another quake in the same region.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – Fallen buildings fill the street in Mirandola; one of the towns closest to the quake's epicentre and an area that eyewitnesses say was most heavily damaged.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – A distraught woman is comforted by policemen after the earthquake, which has killed at least 17 people.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – The cathedral of Mirandola is badly damaged, with large parts of it scattered across the ground. Police tape is strung across several areas of the town to prevent more casualties.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – Personal belongings from a collapsed building are strewn across a street in Cavezzo, where eyewitnesses say about 70% of the town was destroyed.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – Rescue workers give medical help to one of the 200 people injured in the quake.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – Long cracks caused by the quake stretch across the dome of the basilica of St. Anthony in Padua.

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Photos:Deadly earthquake hits Italy

Deadly earthquake hits Italy – Hundreds of blocks of cheese fell on top of one another at a parmigiano factory in San Giovanni, Parsiceto. The owner of the factory surveys the damage on May 21, 2012, following an earlier quake.

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Story highlights

Industrial and agricultural groups warn of a huge cost resulting from the earthquake

Modena's chief prosecutor opens an investigation into the collapse of factories

The quake struck the same region where seven people were killed nine days earlier

The death toll from a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in northern Italy rose to 17 after the discovery of another body, officials said Wednesday, as questions were asked about why factory buildings collapsed.

The latest body was found in the rubble of the collapsed factory in the area of Medolla, Italy's civil protection agency said.

The prosecutor's office in the province of Modena, where the quake was centered, opened an investigation Wednesday into the cause of death of the quake victims, many of whom were factory workers.

Investigators will examine how the factories were built and why they couldn't withstand an earthquake of Tuesday's magnitude.

The earthquake, which forced thousands of people from their homes, came nine days after a 6.0-magnitude quake struck the same region, killing seven people.

Tuesday's quake, which struck at about 9 a .m. local when many people had begun work, was followed by dozens of aftershocks. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded one of 5.6 magnitude.

Italian ministers met Wednesday morning and decided on several measures to be taken in the aftermath of the quake.

The government declared a state of emergency in the quake area and set June 4 as a national day of mourning, according to a press statement. An extra two-cent tax will also be added to gasoline to help finance the recovery effort, it said.

Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano, Prime Minister Mario Monti and the speakers of both Italian houses of parliament on the earthquake met later Wednesday at the presidential palace in Rome to discuss the disaster.

The towns of Mirandola and Cavezzo, northwest of the city of Bologna, were closest to the epicenter, civil protection authorities said.

Witnesses reported on Twitter that Cavezzo was about 70% destroyed. Pictures purportedly from the town, as well as a video stream from Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, show damaged and destroyed buildings.

Churches and historic structures were among the affected buildings.

In the small town of Novi di Modena, a 65-year-old priest died inside his church as he tried to save its statue of the Madonna.

Construction workers who were out surveying the damage in Medolla were emotional as they spoke of their experiences a day earlier.

Mohmammed Mouhalhal told CNN he was at work when the earthquake struck. He and his fellow construction workers now fear for their jobs and their safety, he said.

He said no one could sleep Tuesday night and they stayed outside for fear of further quakes.

Some 50 tremors were felt in the area overnight.

Italian authorities are still assessing the economic impact of the earthquakes on the region, which lies in northern Italy, the heartland of the country's manufacturing industry.

Leaders of agricultural and industrial organizations, speaking to Italian media, have estimated the cost of the disaster at nearly one billion euros.

The Italian daily newspaper Repubblica puts the damage to the biomedical industry in Medolla alone at about €600 million ($751 million).

Many cheese makers are also among those affected.

Stefano Berni, president of the consortium that makes Grana Padano, a hard cheese similar to Parmesan, told CNN that some 350,000 whole cheeses, each weighing 40 kilograms (88 pounds), had been shaken to the ground. No more than 40% of those are likely to be salvageable, he said, leading to estimated losses of €70 million ($88 million).

About 600 cheese producers located in the area north of the earthquake epicenter have suffered damage to their production centers and warehouses, he said. About 50,000 families, including the milk producers and cheese makers, work for the industry.

Other factories and warehouses that have not been damaged by the quake will still suffer losses because they have had to halt production for safety checks.

Geophysicist Antonio Piersanti, of the National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology, told Corriere della Sera that it was possible more earthquakes could follow in the coming weeks.

The last significant earthquake in this area was in 1571. It was followed by about four years of aftershocks.